Pressat

Ingredient Glossary Compliance Deadlines & Guide for 2026

Friday 12 December, 2025

Industry urged to act now as synchronized transparency laws reshape cosmetic ingredient labeling in Beauty E-commerce.


Zurich, Switzerland – In 2026, beauty retailers across Europe and Canada will face a synchronized compliance cliff, as sweeping new regulations governing cosmetic ingredient disclosure come into force. The simultaneous enforcement of the updated INCI Glossary under Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2025/1175 and the expanded fragrance allergen disclosure rules under Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/1545, alongside Canada’s phased implementation under SOR/2024-63, marks a turning point for ingredient transparency and supply chain accountability.


Historically, cosmetic regulation focused primarily on the safety of ingredients—banning carcinogens or restricting preservatives. The new wave of regulation, however, focuses on informational safety. The premise of Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 is not that the newly listed 56 allergens are unsafe for the general population, but that they pose a specific risk to sensitized individuals who have a "right to know". This philosophical shift places the burden of granular data disclosure squarely on the manufacturer. It is no longer sufficient for a product to be safe; its safety profile must be fully transparent, legible, and accurate down to the level of trace isomers in a complex essential oil blend.


Key Deadlines:














































Date

Region

Mandate

Summary

April 12, 2026

Canada

Phase 1 Allergen Disclosure

All cosmetic products sold in Canada must disclose the original 24 allergens.

July 30, 2026

EU

INCI Glossary Enforcement

All products placed on the market in the EU must use updated INCI names, including mandatory CI numbers for colorants.

July 31, 2026

EU

81 Allergen Disclosure

All products must declare the expanded list of fragrance allergens, including grouped isomers.



EU

Sell-Through Deadline

All legacy products with old labels must be off EU shelves.

August 1, 2026

Canada

Phase 2 (New Products)

All newly introduced products in Canada must disclose all 81 allergens.



Canada

Full Compliance

All Canadian cosmetic products must disclose all 81 allergens.

Operational Implications for Beauty Retailers, Specialty Stores, and Department Stores:


Beauty retailers are being called upon to audit their inventories, enforce brand partner compliance, and establish centralized ingredient governance protocols.


To achieve this:



  1. Brands must provide updated ingredient lists in official INCI format, not proprietary or outdated nomenclature or translations. Retailers should request allergen disclosures based on the new 81-substance list.




  2. Allergens must be flagged and aggregated correctly—particularly isomer families such as “Rose Ketones” and “Citral,” which must be summed across multiple ingredients to determine threshold compliance.




  3. Ingredient data must be continuously updated, verified, and made visible at the point of sale—on pack and online.





Beauty Retail Solutions: From Manual Cleanup to Automation


To avoid manual overload and regulatory exposure, automated systems are now essential. One such solution are the Transparency Features form Inference Beauty, mainly the INCI Explainer, a retailer-ready platform that streamlines INCI compliance across complex inventories:



Retailer Benefits Include:



"2026 will be remembered as the year ingredient transparency stopped being optional. This is a decisive moment for the industry—and a huge opportunity for retailers to lead with clarity and trust. At Inference Beauty, we've spent years building the infrastructure to make ingredient data actionable, compliant, and customer-ready at scale. With the Ingredient Explainer, we’re not just helping our partners meet the new laws—we’re helping them build a smarter, more transparent beauty future."


— Estella Benz, CEO, Inference Beauty



Distributed by Pressat